Assessing the Need for Judges and Court Support Staff

• NCJ Number: 163403
• Author(s): V E Flango; B J Ostrom
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 133 pages
• Grant Number(s): SJI-92-05C-B-158; SJI-92-05C-B-262
• Sponsoring Agency: State Justice Institute
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for State Courts
• Sale Source: National Ctr for State Courts
• Publication Type: Training (Aid/Material)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This handbook is designed to acquaint State and local courts as well as legislative bodies with alternative methods of assessing the need for court judges and court support staff as well as to help decisionmakers evaluate these alternatives and choose those most appropriate for their situation.

Abstract

To achieve this, the handbook describes and assesses current criteria for determining the need for judges and court support staff and develops a range of alternative approaches for determining the need for judges and court support staff. Further, it assesses innovative methods used to determine the need for judges and court support staff and also identifies ways to lower costs and ease the burden of conducting judgeship needs and court support staff studies. The balance between quantitative and qualitative methods of assessment is discussed, along with the integration of the criteria used to assess the need for judges and the criteria for assessing the need for court support staff. The recommended approach relies upon a quantitative analysis of the need for judges and court staff combined with a qualitative component. The quantitative criteria should approximate the need for judges and court support staff, and then these estimates should be tempered with more qualitative, court-specific factors that may differentially affect the need for judges and court support staff.